Credit

Caption

Preparation of samples of collagen, taken from bone which has been submitted for radiocarbon dating. The collagen will be oxidised to carbon dioxide which is then reduced to graphite. The graphite pellets are used to determine the value of the carbon-14 isotope by an accelerator mass spectrometer. Evaluation of this figure and comparison with the proportion of carbon-12 present leads to a figure for an age of the original sample. Photographed at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, UK.